A car burnt by soldiers during curfew

Shortly after the end of yesterday's attempt to break the siege, at around 22:00, the army went out of the village, thus ending curfew. Though villagers vowed to continue resisting the theft of their lands, the siege on the army was also lifted at around midnight, with a (probably empty) promise by the West Bank Commander of the army's Civil Administration, brigadier general Yoav Mordekhay, to look into changing the path of the wall.

A burning barricade, Saturday the 5th

Following two weeks of almost daily, very successful demonstrations in Ni'ilin, where demonstrators were able to disrupt construction numerous times and even to significantly damage machinery, the army had decided to resort to illegal collective punishment in its attempts to strangle the outburst of popular rage in the village. In the divide between Thursday the 3rd and Friday the 4th, around 4AM, massive army forces gathered at the three entrances to the village and brought life in the village to a halt - no one allowed in or out. Fierce street resistance broke out, and at 5AM, Sunday the 6th, a complete curfew was imposed on the village. Over a hundred people were already injured in the last three days.

Video by Israel Poterman

Demonstrators in Ni'ilin managed to reach the bulldozers and other heavy machinary constructing the wall on village's land today, and to cause significant damage to the machinary, despite live ammunition being shot at them.

Two bulldozers, one truck and two jeeps were hurt in a way that did not allow them to continue construction

This week, nearing the end of the weekly demonstration against the wall in Bil'in, soldiers opened fire on Ibrahim Bornat using live ammunition, hitting his right thigh. Ibrahim, a regular participant in the Bil'in demonstrations for the past three years, had already been injured numerous times, but this is the most serious one yet. The bullets that pierced his leg had ripped an artery and a vain and caused local nerve damage, of which the long term implications are still not clear.
Another demonstrator, an Israeli was shot in the chest with a rubber coated metal bullet

Soldiers running away from teargas Photo By Tess Scheflan\Activestills 

After a relatively calm demonstration on Friday since no construction was taking place, a general strike was declared in the village today as the bulldozers resumed destroying the olive orchards. At around eleven am, over 300 people set out to the lands to stop the bulldozers. The demonstrators were met by a massive contingent of soldiers who rained volleys of teargas, concussion grenades and rubber-coated steel bullets on them. Nevertheless, in the nearly four hours of clashes, protesters have managed to intermittently get to the bulldozers and disrupt the construction three times.

Video by David Reeb and Israel Poterman

For the past two weeks, a nearly daily mobilization has been taking place in the village of Ni'ilin, where construction of the wall has begun. The video depicts today's demonstration, in which villagers and supporters tried blocking the bulldozers and were met by harsh military violence, which included concussion grenades, teargas and rubber bullets, as well as kicks and punches. Twelve were injured during the demonstration and two, one Palestinian and one Israeli, were arrested.

The wall in the area is planned to leave about 2,500 dunams (approx. 620 acres, 250 hectares), practically annexing them to the nearby settlement. The route of the wall on village's lands was planned in order to allow, amongst other things, the construction of a graveyard for the adjacent settlements.

Demonstrations and the attempt to block the construction is expected to resume Sunday.